Cover Marco Viaña (Photo: Paw Castillo)

We sit down with Tanghalang Pilipino's associate artistic director and Virgin Labfest's co-director Marco Viaña to talk about his early beginnings in the local theatre scene and his great vision for its future

With a career in the country's performing arts scene spanning only a little over a decade, this homegrown talent of Tanghalang Pilipino (TP) has already reached enough milestones to be labelled as one of the country's best. Marco Viaña received the 2019 Gawad Buhay award for "Male Lead Performance in a Play" after his chilling performance in Katsuri. Previously, he also received the 2017 Gawad Buhay award for "Male Featured Performance in a Play" in Ang Pag-uusig.

While pursuing a degree in Engineering at the Mapua University, Viaña was attracted to the energy and magic of theatre. Aside from essaying male lead roles, he has also directed some independent performances, opera recitals for the UP College of Music, and co-directed Lam-ang in 2019, which made him earn the 2020 Aliw award for "Best Stage Director for a Musical".

His artistic performance has always been truthful, on point, and leaves one in deep thought as he effectively transcends the message of his character and scene to the audience. Now the associate artistic director of Tanghalang Pilipino and co-director of Virgin Labfest, Viaña passes on to his colleagues and mentees his knowledge and passion for the craft. In this conversation, he shares with Tatler his early beginnings in the world of theatre and why it matters in the shaping of a nation.

Tatler Asia
Above From the 2019 production of 'Katsuri'

How did you get into the theatre business?

Marco Viaña (MV): Like most Filipino theatre actors, I discovered the magic of theatre in elementary and high school without realising that it will lead to a serious career and more than just an extra-curricular activity. I was a member of the Mapua Tekno Teatro in college where I met my mentors who inspired me to pursue professional theatre. In 2009, a friend invited me to watch the Virgin Labfest (VLF) and I was hooked! Some of the plays I saw were the staging of Layeta Bucoy’s Doc Resureccion, Nick Pichay’s Isang Araw sa Karnabal, Tim Dacanay’s Huling Lektyur ni Misis Reyes, and told myself that these are the kind of plays I want to do—and I want to meet and work with these artists. The following year, when TP announced that they were looking for new resident actors as members of the Actors Company, I convinced my mum to allow me to audition. I got in and got to share the CCP stage with some of the best Filipino artists during the yearly theatre season of TP and the VLF. At present, I am assigned as TP’s associate artistic director and was recently invited to share VLF's co-directorship with Tess Jamias. The journey wasn’t all magic of course. It took years of consistent training and practice for an Engineering graduate like me to develop my craft. And the learning process never stops. We, the current members of the Actors Company, are constantly reminded to continue being students of theatre, and of life, and have that mindset for continuous growth and learning. 

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Photo 1 of 3 From the 2019 production of 'Katsuri'
Photo 2 of 3 From the 2019 production of 'Coriolano'
Photo 3 of 3 From the 2017 production of 'Ang Pag-uusig' (The Crucible)

What is your creative process as an actor when preparing for a role?

MV: When studying a role, one question we learned to always ask is: how much of my character reflects my personality or history? By answering this, we can identify the similarities and/or differences that will help determine how much work needs to be done.

One role that required me to go beyond myself is Coriolano (adapted from Shakespeare’s Coriolanus) as he is someone whose language is violent. Our director, Carlos Siguion-Reyna, urged us to look into our political history and look for personalities that reflect the same character trait and try to dissect the motivation behind their choices. In Katsuri (based on John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men), also directed by Sir Carlos, I did the same process of looking beyond my own instincts for the character George, who is a farmhand from Negros that dreams of having his own land but always gets confronted daily by his challenging realities. Inspiration for actors when it comes to developing and becoming the characters we play shouldn’t be limited to our own personal journey. Our own truths don’t always reflect the truths of the characters we play, so part of the job is to go outside the four corners of the stage, widen our perspectives, and practice as much empathy as possible.

How about as a director, how do you guide the actors through your vision?

MV: One important process that we learnt as members of the Actors Company is to dissect the entirety of the script and not just focus on the character you are assigned to portray. By deeply understanding the entire script, by dissecting the characters and their relationships, and by investigating the realities and conditions of their environment, we can collaborate in finding the right path for the characters to take.

Read more: Tanghalang Pilipino's Adaptation of Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' Sheds Light on Filipino Farmers' Plight

Tatler Asia
Above Marco Viaña (Photo: Paw Castillo)

What fuels your creativity as a theatre person?

MV: Experiences. Going beyond the CCP stage and having the chance to see, listen, and feel the life in different communities and exploring various spaces, provide so many possibilities. These past two years imposed so many restrictions for experiences but this has not hindered me from discovering ways to remind me to live. Simply varying my bike route after going to the grocery, trying a different flavour of chicken wings, or taking time to share stories with a drugstore employee are daily stimuli that we sometimes take for granted. It needed lockdowns and quarantines for me to realise that you can find magic from the mundane. 

What or who challenges you the most?

MV: I value Sir Dennis Marasigan’s (our Actors Company's academic adviser) mentoring and guidance. He motivates us to become better artists. He taught us that if most athletes need constant and consistent training, why should it be different for an actor? We are so grateful that even during this pandemic he made sure that we get to read scripts, discuss movies and online theatre shows, and expose ourselves to more theatre and art even when we are stuck in our own homes. And our TP parents, Tata Nanding Josef (TP's artistic director) and Ms Carmela Manuel (TP's company manager) who instiled in us the value of theatre work in different communities around the country, continuously reinforce the importance of looking beyond ourselves and being more aware and sensitive towards issues and stories that concern our community. They are our constants. They all challenge us to always embody “Utak, Puso, Bayan” (Mind, Heart, Country).

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Photo 1 of 3 From the 2017 production of 'Eurydice'
Photo 2 of 3 From the 2016 production of 'Daddy's Girl'
Photo 3 of 3 From the 2019 production of 'Coriolano'

What makes Philippine arts and culture important for you in the shaping of our society?

MV: Now that there’s a surge of inaccurate information about our history, the government, and public health, I feel the arts is our antidote by educating and empowering people to be more critical in processing information. In Tanghalang Pilipino, we are always reminded that it is part of our responsibility as storytellers to deeply understand different realities of our society, to dig out as much truth as possible, and use Philippine theatre and the arts as a platform to create experiences that can hopefully shed light, instil values or change standpoints, and even provoke our audiences to take action. “Utak, Puso, Bayan” has been Tanghalang Pilipino’s battle cry since 2016.

What makes the local performing arts scene unique and exciting for you?

MV: The abundance and diversity of the works that are produced! Professional and university-based theatre companies, independent groups, and community-based organisations from Metro Manila and in all the other regions really showcase the strengths of the performing arts in the Philippines. And we have so many stories to tell! The Virgin Labfest alone receives an average of 200 submissions of one-act plays in recent years.

Read more: The State of the Philippine Art Scene During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Tatler Asia
Above Marco Viaña (Photo: Paw Castillo)

What do you think of the current state of our theatre scene?

MV: The last two years of being displaced from our performance spaces have been very challenging for Filipino theatre artists. But because theatre’s primary goal is to communicate, it was very inspiring to witness the new normal storytelling techniques of local artists and see them adjust to the realities of “hybrid theatre-making” in order to continue communicating with audiences. 

Now, as we are preparing for the 36th Season of Tanghalang Pilipino (TP) and the 17th year of the Virgin Labfest (VLF), yes, we still encounter challenges in our new normal processes, but the past two years equipped the whole TP and VLF team enough skills in navigating production work and be ready to welcome the audiences again in the spaces of CCP. The use of digital technology, exploration of different spaces and platforms, and other discovered storytelling devices will definitely motivate artists and companies in creating future theatre works. We look forward to the day when the audiences feel safe to conquer theatre spaces again and revisit the experience of anticipating the curtains to rise and stage lights to turn on.

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Photo 1 of 3 From the 2016 production of 'Daddy's Girl'
Photo 2 of 3 From the 2016 production of 'Wong Kids'
Photo 3 of 3 From the 2017 production of 'Ang Pag-uusig' (The Crucible)

What needs to be done to promote further our performing arts scene?

MV: For Tanghalang Pilipino and other local companies, our biggest responsibility is to continue to create and produce theatre pieces even with limited resources and bring these to as many communities as possible. We hope that bringing the performances closer to them will inspire Filipinos into the habit of watching and supporting local theatre. Equally important is our government's support of arts and culture programs, exchanges with academic institutions, and mainstream media exposure. These breakthroughs are needed to popularise our performing arts scene. 

What is the theatre or the stage to you?

MV: Theatre—live or hybrid—is a space to help you understand yourself deeply: it teaches you who you are, inspires you to become whoever you want to be, and pushes you to connect and contribute in any way you can. 


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